There are tens of thousands of known variable stars. Professional astronomers don’t have the time or telescopes to keep track of the changes to thousands of stars, so amateurs play an important role in variable star research.

This week Travis, Rebecca and I discuss the methods and instruments used to observe variable stars. How to locate them in the sky, how to measure their brightness over time and how to collect and submit your data to the AAVSO so you can contribute to real science!